Requirements for Water Parks &

Tubing Operators
August 10, 2020

8.10.2020 | Requirements for Water Parks & Tubing Operators 1

 Benchmarks
There are two key components to resuming business operations. First is the quality of the establishment’s
implementation of COVID-19 mitigation strategies. This plan outlines mitigation strategies tailored for specific types of
business operations. Business must attest to their implementation of these strategies prior to operating. The second
is the level of spread occurring in the community. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines
community spread as follows:

Minimal Community Spread: Evidence of isolated cases or limited community transmission, case
investigations underway; no evidence of exposure in large communal setting.

Moderate Community Spread: Sustained transmission with high likelihood or confirmed exposure within
communal settings and potential for rapid increase in cases.

Substantial Community Spread: Large scale, controlled community transmission, including communal
settings (e.g., schools, workplaces).

ADHS further defines community spread levels with the thresholds outlined below. These thresholds are consistent
with the national standards set by the Coronavirus Task Force.

Benchmarks Minimal Moderate Substantial

Cases <10 cases/100,000 10-100 cases/100,000 >100 cases/100,000

Percent Positivity <5% 5-10% ≥10%

Covid Like Illness <5% 5-10% >10%

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 Understanding the Benchmarks

Cases Percent Positivity COVID-like Illness

Benchmark: Two weeks below 100 cases Benchmark: Two weeks with percent Benchmark: Two weeks with hospital visits
per 100,000 positivity below 10% due to COVID-like illness below 10%

Data Source: ADHS MEDSIS Confirmed

and Probable Cases
Available by: County
Data Source: ADHS Electronic Laboratory Data Source: BioSense Syndromic
Data Surveillance Platform

Available by: County Available by: BioSense Region

• Northern: Apache, Coconino, Navajo,
Yavapai Counties
• Central: Gila, Maricopa, Pinal
Counties
• Southeastern: Cochise, Graham,
Greenlee, Pima, Santa Cruz Counties
• Western: La Paz, Mohave, Yuma
Counties

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 Requirements for Water Parks and Tubing Operators
ADHS Requirements for Water Parks and Tubing Operators

Water Parks and Tubing Operators

Hand Proper
Community Symptom Physical Communal
Hygiene & Enhanced Ventilation Towel Transportation
Spread Occupancy Screening Distancing Masks Spaces
Respiratory Cleaning (buildings Policies Policies
Level for staff (6 feet) Restricted
Etiquette and buses)

50% until
Minimal x x x x x x x x x
< 3% positivity

Moderate 50% x x x x x x x x x

Substantial Closed N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A

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 Per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS)
guidance, under all circumstances, the following precautions must be taken by people utilizing water parks and
tubing operations:

Stay home if you are sick.

Protect yourself while visiting water parks and tubing operations:

• Arizonans are safer at home and should evaluate their personal risk of using a waterpark or tubing venue
based on the Arizona COVID-19 Risk Index.
• Avoid close contact and stay more than 6 feet away from others.
• Wear a mask at all times, except when in the water.
- Masks should not be placed on children less than 2 years of age, anyone who has trouble
breathing, or is unconscious, incapacitated or otherwise unable to remove the cover
without assistance.
- Masks should never be worn in the water.
• Wash your hands often, especially after leaving the pool, with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. If
soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.
• Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue or your sleeve (not your hands) and immediately throw the
tissue in the trash.
• If possible, use touchless payment methods. If you must handle money, a card, or use a keypad, use hand
sanitizer immediately after.
• If you are at higher risk for severe illness, you should avoid visiting water parks and tubing operations.
People at higher risk for severe illness include adults 65 or older and people of any age who have serious
underlying medical conditions.

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 The Arizona Department of Health Services requires the following additional steps
be taken by water parks and tubing operations and providers shall take measures to
ensure that employees and guests follow these guidelines:

Implement occupancy limitations as required based on the community transmission category within the county your
establishment operates.
• Substantial: closed unless special dispensation received from ADHS
• Moderate: 50% of the permitted fire code occupant load with ADHS prescribed mitigation requirements
• Minimal: 50% occupancy with ADHS mitigation requirements until < 3% positivity
Implement and enforce physical distancing precautions that maintain more than 6 feet between guests who do not
live in the same household:
• Modify deck layouts to ensure individuals remain more than 6 feet apart from people who do not live in
their same household.
• Provide physical barriers and cues to ensure staff, guests, and swimmers follow physical distancing rules
both in and out of the water (e.g., lane lines in the water, chair and table spacing on the deck, and tape
on the decks, floors, or sidewalks).
• Stagger and severely limit the use of communal spaces and restrict common areas where people are likely
to congregate and interact.
- Consider closing communal spaces and common areas.
- If communal spaces and common areas are in use, assign an employee to monitor the space or area
and maintain physical distancing.
• Enforce similar physical distancing requirements in employee-only spaces, such as dining rooms, uniform
control areas, and shared office spaces.
• Avoid group events, gatherings, or meetings both in and out of the water.
• Exceptions to physical distancing guidelines include:
- Rescuing a distressed swimmer, providing first aid, or performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation, with
or without an automated external defibrillator.

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 Require customers and staff to wear masks at all times, except when in the water or actively eating or drinking.

Adhere to local or state policies or recommendations on mass gatherings to determine if events can be held.
If these must be held:
• Limit the number of participants in the event.
• Implement symptom screening and temperature checks of all staff and participants at the door or
entrance.
• Stagger drop-off or pick-up times.
• Limit traveling for events to prevent mixing of individuals from different geographical locations.

Provide adequate supplies to support healthy hygiene behaviors, including soap, hand sanitizer with at least 60%
alcohol, disinfecting wipes, tissues, and no-touch trash cans.

Distribute and post health messages and materials to staff and guests and educate about everyday preventive
actions that include respiratory etiquette and hand hygiene:
• Staying home when sick.
• Covering coughs and sneezes with a tissue or elbow (not your hands) and immediately throwing the
tissue in the trash.
• Washing hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. If soap and water are not available, use
an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.

Post signage at entrances about how to stop the spread of COVID-19, properly wash hands and practice other
protective measures, properly use masks.

Post signage at the entrance of public health advisories prohibiting individuals who are symptomatic from entering
the premises.

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 Use a system that separates the already cleaned and disinfected rented items, including tubes, from those that need
to be cleaned and disinfected.

Encourage or require patrons to provide their own towels.

• If towels must be provided, provide individual towels for each patron.
• Patrons should be informed to not shake used towels and to discard used towels into appropriate bins.
- Clean and disinfect bins that hold used towels
• Towels must be laundered and disinfected in between patrons.
- Use disposable gloves while laundering towels and clothing and, in accordance with manufacturer’s
instructions, use the warmest allowable water temperature and ensure items are completely dried.
• Wash hands right away after removing gloves used while handling used towels.

Ensure that ventilation systems of indoor spaces operate properly.

• Increase the circulation of outdoor air as much as possible by opening windows and doors, using fans, or
other methods.

Maintain water systems of these facilities (including disinfection with chlorine and bromine) to inactivate viruses in
the water.

Ensure that all water systems like drinking fountains, decorative fountains, and hot tubs are safe to use after a
prolonged facility shut down to minimize the risk of Legionnaires’ disease and other waterborne diseases.
• Consider restricting or eliminating access to drinking fountains.

Eliminate the use of shared items such as goggles, nose clips, snorkels, toys, and equipment.
• If reusable items must be provided, have adequate quantities of equipment (such as kick boards and pool
noodles) to minimize sharing between guests. Thoroughly sanitize equipment between each use.
• Limit the use of equipment and disinfect immediately after each use.

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 Ensure that on-duty lifeguards are not expected to monitor handwashing, the use of masks, or physical distancing.
Assign this responsibility to another staff member.

If transportation is provided, tubing operators must:

• Institute measures to enforce physical distancing of more than 6 feet between bus transit operators and
other passengers. These measures may include use of physical partitions or visual cues (e.g., floor decals,
colored tape, or signs to indicate to passengers where they should not sit or stand near the bus operator,
blocking off every other row of seats).
• Require the use of masks at all times.
• Make hand sanitizer available to all riders prior to boarding and after disembarking.
• Provide disposable disinfectant wipes so that surfaces commonly touched by the bus operator or
customers can be wiped down.
• Ensure vehicle is well ventilated: Increase the circulation of outdoor air as much as possible by opening
windows, using fans, or other methods.

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 The Arizona Department of Health Services requires the following additional steps be
taken by staff:

Require sick employees to stay home and not return to work until they have met criteria to return to work.
• Employees who appear to have symptoms or who become ill while at work should immediately be
separated from others and sent home.
• Document and communicate sick leave policies to employees and staff.
Consider implementing flexible sick leave policies that permit adherence to public health isolation and quarantine
guidance.

Implement symptom screening for employees prior to the start of their shift, including temperature checks at the
door or entrance.

Train all staff on appropriate cleaning and disinfection, hand hygiene, and respiratory etiquette.

Ensure that all employees are notified of new facility rules and any changes in rules.

Ensure employees or volunteers maintain more than 6 feet separation from other individuals and ensure the use of
masks.

Provide appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) for employees in accordance with public health
recommendations.

Provide adequate supplies in employee workspaces to support healthy hygiene behaviors, including soap, hand
sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol, disinfecting wipes, tissues, and no-touch trash cans.

Intensify cleaning, disinfection, and ventilation.

• Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces and all areas after they are touched or used, such as
handrails, slides, structures for climbing or playing, lounge chairs, tabletops, pool noodles, kickboards,
door handles, surfaces of restrooms, handwashing stations, diaper-changing stations, showers, etc.
• Comprehensive sanitation should include sanitizing pool chairs, tables, and other poolside furniture after
every use.
• See additional CDC reopening guidance on cleaning and disinfecting.
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 Enforce the use of disposable gloves while laundering towels and clothing and, in accordance with manufacturer’s
instructions, use the warmest allowable water temperature and ensure items are completely dried.
• Do not shake used towels.
• Clean and disinfect bins that hold used towels.
• Wash hands right away after removing gloves and handling used towels.

See Department of Labor and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) COVID-19 guidance for
employers and workers.

The list of EPA-approved disinfectant products for emerging viral pathogens expected to be effective against COVID-19
can be accessed here.

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 For additional guidance, visit CDC’s Considerations for Public Pools, Hot
Tubs, and Water Playgrounds During COVID-19.

For COVID-19 questions, please call the Arizona COVID-19

Hotline at: 1-844-542-8201
Businesses impacted by E.O. 2020-43 and 2020-52 are required to complete an attestation prior to resuming
operations. Approval for resuming operations is dependent upon community transmission within the county the
establishment is physically located and the establishment’s implementation of ADHS required mitigation steps.
Further information can be found in the ADHS COVID-19 Guidance for Businesses.

Any business affected by these provisions may request an informal settlement conference to dispute their
categorization on reopening. A denial after an informal settlement conference becomes a final agency action
that is appealable to the Office of Administrative Hearings.

For more information on Arizona’s response to COVID-19, please visit: azhealth.gov/COVID19.

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